"My partners experience in hospital"

My partner who has type one diabetes has been in and out of hospital every couple months or so with problems managing her ketones and episodes of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). She has been admitted to every hospital in north and south Lanarkshire. Each admission the protocol was hooked up to IV drips so that she has a continuous feed of insulin to bring blood glucose and ketones then see how she does off the drips before discharging. She called up NHS24 relating to a constant headache she had for 3 days that the GP wouldn’t see her about and we had to wait for the gp’s to close before speaking with NHS24.

Eventually out of hours checked her out then sent her to Wishaw as her sugars spiked. 12 hours in A&E, then 6 hours in triage, then another overnight in assessment. While in assessment she was told from different staff members she would be going home and monitor it herself even though her sugars were above 18 and all they did was come in every couple hours to see her take her own insulin, no IV drip/ cannula’s involved. Then one staff member comes in saying your getting moved to a ward. Another overnight before being moved to a ward and they still didn’t have her on a sliding scale/ IV drip with continuous feed of insulin.

Due to dietary choices there was also no options for meals so she pretty much starved. Staff members attempted to insert cannula’s for the drips but none of them could get a line in so they left it and her ketones started spiking again but nothing was done. The ward she was in wasn’t even a diabetes ward and I overheard the staff say due to bed shortages they were considering sending her home as the mentioned nothing was working and they don’t have the space for the machines to put her on a sliding scale.

She was using her own prescribed insulin instead of using the hospitals as well as her own testing strips which she only has a limited amount. One day I was going in to visit she asked me to bring in some strips and needles from home as the hospital didn’t have any. I spoke with the staff and to me it seemed like they didn’t know what they’re doing, diabetes management etc. When sugars and ketones get to this stage what she and anyone else with T1 diabetes needs is continuous medicine. Then see how they respond independently, assess from there, none of this was done, felt like they were winging everything. Confidentiality and patient wills and wishes breached because my partner requested certain family members not to be notified and the staff told them.